Have you invested in a visual brand identity for your business? Many designers and agencies deliver branding decks that aren’t optimised for use with MS Office. This poses a challenge if Office is your standard software suite, as it is in many workplaces. So, how can you ensure your branded templates are optimised?
In part 1 of this article, we looked at the main areas affected by this: colours, fonts and printing. Here, we’ll go through the steps you need to use to adapt the brand in each case, so you’ll never have to wrangle inconsistencies again.
Plan your MS branded templates
If you use MS Office frequently, you probably know exactly how you work and what you need. Set down your requirements and the main issues you face, and consult your team to gather their input, too.
Do they know which fonts and colours to use, and where to find them? Do the current brand guidelines require a lot of manual formatting when applied in Word or Excel? You can use their feedback to help you plan and carry out the adaptation.
Choose brand colours in MS Office
You’ll be performing these steps in PowerPoint, even if you need to use your theme in Excel or Word.
Identify the main colours of your new theme. The MS system allows us to build in 10 colours as a standard. I usually leave the first two as black and white because these two colours are always useful. The other two should be colours that you usually use as text or backgrounds in your brand, and the remaining six will be used for graphics and charts by the software as part of its automatic recommendations.
If you use charts often, it’s a good idea to make a few samples using your chosen colours. It’s important to make sure that the colours are strikingly different, so it’s easy to identify the different categories of data. Avoid setting similar colours next to each other in this palette: if you use two different blues, for example, the contrast might not be visible enough.
Choose brand fonts in MS Office
You can also choose fonts as part of your new theme. These will be the default fonts, meaning they’ll always be used unless you specify otherwise. This is going to be helpful at times when you create a new text box, as it will start with the theme font.
Set font, size and style (bold, italic, regular) for each part of your document template. You can check these by creating a sample document and testing out the different styles. 
Then, export your document to PDF and see whether the fonts stay consistent across both formats. If there are any issues, you can select a fallback alternative from the Microsoft system font library as your theme font instead of your original font. Arial is a good choice for sans serif fonts, and Times New Roman for serif fonts.
If your chosen fonts aren’t MS system fonts, you may be able to embed them in your templates to ensure they’re always available. Google fonts can be embedded, but fonts from a paid provider typically cannot – when they can, it tends to be very expensive to do so. Give this a test in various computers too, as it can still sometimes not work properly. If you often need to present your documents using different computers, return to a system font, or present a PDF instead of your source file.
Check printed brand documents
Wonky margins are a common problem when you print full-page images, such as branded graphics. There’s an easy fix: just add a white border to any page that has a full-page background, or avoid full-page backgrounds completely for documents you have to print often.
Doing this will result in a consistent, polished look: a perfect finish for your branded templates.
By taking these steps, you’ll minimise inconsistencies and wonkiness that would make your document look less professional. This is actually how I start every MS Office project, so you can be sure that by following these steps you will have a good foundation for your template.
However, you don’t necessarily have to do this on your own, especially if the visual part of communicating is not your area of genius. You’re probably alrewady working with a graphic design tean that can support you in setting up your templates. And if not, scroll to the bottom and give me a call!
Seamless branded templates
Working through each of these steps will ensure that your branding transfers seamlessly to MS Office, with no need for additional tweaks. However, the most effective way to fix the problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
If you’re still at the branding (or rebranding) stage, tell your designer that you’ll be doing a lot of work in MS Office. Make sure they’re informed about how you use your MS templates, and any specific needs you and your team may have. A good designer will make sure the final product fits your requirements.
Too late for prevention?
A visual efficiency partner like Beyond the Surface can work with you to make adapting your brand a painless process. If you’d like to find out more, just reach out to schedule your free discovery call with our founder, Francesca Romano. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter for expert tips and insights.
If you’re at the stage of wondering if your brand can work better for you, I’d love for us to help you with this discovery.
We’ll go beyond the surface of your communications, take into account all the ways you and your clients / audience interact with the brand, and make sure they work for everyone. This ensures your branded templates are fully optimised.
Ready to get a usable brand? Or make your current brand more usable? Book an intro call now, and we’ll get working!
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